1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser for a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a condenser for a refrigerator for minimizing the difference of air flow rate between a front side and a rear side thereof when heat exchange with ambient air in the condenser is performed by blowing operation of a cooling fan installed to a side of the condenser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator is an apparatus for freezing and refrigerating food in a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment by changing phase of refrigerant according to a refrigerant cycle of compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation, and its structure is depicted in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a vertical elevation view schematically illustrating the structure of a general refrigerator. As shown in FIG. 1, the refrigerator includes a main body 1 divided into a freezer compartment 3 and a refrigerator compartment 4 by a partition 2 disposed between the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4, a freezer compartment door 3a and a refrigerator door 4a respectively hinged to the front sides of the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4, a heat exchanging chamber 5 including an evaporator 6 and a blower fan 7 and disposed at the rear side of the freezer compartment 3.
Moreover, the partition 2 is formed with a freezer return duct 21 and a refrigerator return duct 22, for respectively returning chilled air in the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4 to the heat exchanging chamber 5. A chilled air duct 8 is formed at the rear side of the refrigerator compartment 4 to communicate with the freezer compartment 3 and has a plurality of chilled air discharge ports 8a. A machine room M is formed at the rear lower side of the main body 1 to accommodate a compressor 9 and a condenser (not shown).
Air in the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4 is sucked into the heat exchanging chamber 5 by the blower fan 7 of the heat exchanging chamber 5 through the freezer return duct 21 and the refrigerator return duct 22 formed in the partition 2 to undergo heat-exchange in the evaporator 6, and is discharged into the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4 through the chilled air discharge ports 8a of the chilled air duct 8, and this cycle is repeated. At that time, frost is attacked to the surfaces of the evaporator 6 due to the temperature difference between ambient air and the air circulating in the freezer compartment 3 and the refrigerator compartment 4 re-introduced into the evaporator via the freezer compartment return duct 21 and the refrigerator return duct 22.
In order to defrost, the evaporator 6 includes a defrost heater 10 at the lower side thereof, and defrosting water generated when the frost is defrosted is collected in a defrosting water vessel (not shown) provided at the lower side of the main body 1 via a defrosting water discharge pipe 11.
The machine room M, as shown in FIG. 2, is provided with the compressor 9 for changing a low-temperature-and-low-pressure gaseous refrigerant into a high-temperature-and-high-pressure gaseous refrigerant, a condenser 12 for condensing the high-temperature-and-high-pressure gaseous refrigerant into a room-temperature-and-high-pressure liquid refrigerant by performing heat-exchange between the high-temperature-and-high-pressure gaseous refrigerant generated by the compressor 9 and ambient air, and a cooling fan 13 for blowing the introduced ambient air in the machine room M to the condenser 12.
Generally, the condenser 12, as shown in FIG. 3, has a wire-on-tube structure such that straight tube parts are parallel to each other, “U”-shaped tube parts are connected to the straight tube parts in zigzag fashion to form a serpentine shaped refrigerant tube 121 and to have multiple layers, and wire radiator fins 122 with a small circular cross-section are placed on the serpentine shaped refrigerant tube 121 and welded thereto by spot-welding.
In the conventional condenser 12, in order to increase contact surface between ambient air blown by the cooling fan 13 and the refrigerant tube 121, as shown in FIG. 2, the refrigerant tube 121 has a staggered arrangement formed from the front side facing the cooling fan 13 to the rear side thereof. In other words, the straight tube parts and the “U”-shaped tube parts of the refrigerant tube 121 are misaligned with the same in other layers.
Thus, due to narrow distance between the straight tube parts of the refrigerant tube 121 in the same layer, since air pneumatic resistance is increased when ambient air blown by the cooling fan 13 passes through the condenser 12, there is a difference of flow rate of ambient air between the front side and the rear side of the condenser 12 ambient air passing through the condenser 12, and thus cooling efficiency of the condenser 12 deteriorates and power consumption thereof is increased. Thus, economic value and reliability of the refrigerator are deteriorated.